The Shot That
Passed Right Through The Net has been a unique football web site from
about 1994 to 2002, maybe the first to cast a global view on the game
by challenging advanced background topics while integrating information
on geographical areas (ex: Africa, China) that were at that
time neglected, such addressing experts and enthusiasts who desired to
expand their horizons and those of their readers.

I had major desire to improve the often stereotype laden discourses as
well as putting especially African football (and the biggest country on
earth, China), on the map of observers
with a very Europeanized focus.

Although my target was to build a platform for writers and other
content producers to reflect on the game, I found it difficult to find
enough writers to contribute regularly while not being paid - as well
as being neutral, analytic, and lateral thinking in the same time. So I
did most of the stuff myself with my limited English. It was not meant
as a journalistic effort but as analysis and to demonstrate the
potential of the format.

When in 1998 Eurosport did not show the first round matches of the
Africa Cup Of Nations, I went into a shop, bought a satellite dish and
covered all Nations Cup matches (in a live-ticker). The response was
huge. I extended the service onto the following tournaments and the
African Champions League, reporting from a small room with an
adjustable satellite dish sometimes covering simultanous matches.

As The Shot really took off, the crash of the new market spoiled the
chances of financing the effort. Adding to it, I had my
ethics: I never wanted the project to become a betting site prostitute,
a corrupt promoter for players of a particular agent, etc.
My clients were supposed to be you, not advertisers, the contents to
transport knowledge and intelligence, not manipulation. Such an
approach is very difficult to finance the way the web is constructed
today.

I had to move on anyway to build advanced projects.

And the world wide web contents has improved, too:
The information on African matches and Africa today is available all
over the net.
When I began with 'The Shot' the word 'Burundi' produced 0 results (in
words: 'zero'!) from the then biggest search engine Altavista. Today
the problem is a different one: If you do not search for Burundi
explicitly, you will not encounter any of it because it is unconnected
and buried under a giant heap of other information we cannot digest all.

A project to help change this is the'Information Bureau African
Football'. Here we try to connect and to push the topic
Africa into the consciousness of 'information makers' who could be
described as 'cognistion designers' to some extent as well.

Analysis
on background issues today is done in many small projects
specialised in certain fields.
To combine such into a more collaborative
and symbiotic discourse, I meanwhile have created another
platform: The Free
University Frankfurt project is a fantastic place for that.
It is open to worldwide students of any age and background.

Here that old The Shot's 'Football 2010' section (2010 was in the
future in 2000) is somehow integrated into the obscene football project soon to
begin.

If I had had time (or the refinancing to hire people) for The Shot, the
site would look much different today with new forms of
communication. And I don't means the 'new' forms you see today
on football website. I mean forms that you do not see today.

Btw: what came up to my mind recently is that the most successful
global site Goal.com looks a lot like The Shot did 15 years ago (with
some necessary adaptions to web development).
mmh. I still think The Shot would look different today and probably
have a different target group, though.

However, now it is 2013 and I consider some forms of blogging or
tweeting a few things in very different form.

Just for the affection for the game and the fight against #obscenefootball. But not here.
The Shot That Passed Right Through The Net is sleeping, one day to be awoken from its slumber - by YOU.

.
Welcome
to this little WWW-soccer-magazine. You will find essays as well as
selected
links to servers who offer good soccer-pages or indexes. The aim is to
offer new perspectives and access to results and data hard to get
otherwise.
The layout is kept intentionally lean to enable a fast download for
everybody
.The site is divided into subsites
like 'Football 2010', 'Football in Africa', etc.Some
parts of the site are always
under construction but the big download figures and your inumerous
responses
have shown there seems a lot to discover o this site. Thank you.
TheShot
African
Nations Cup 2006the-shot.com
coverage this time together with the new
'Information Bureau African Football':IBAF African Nations Cup 2006 Blog
!
new in The-Shot.Net
writersclub !:
background articles on African football,
African World Cup qualifiers for 2006,
Euro 2004 favorites, Real Madrid, the World
Cup 2010 decisionIf
your are looking for the latest additions then go to the little bit
chaotic

page
which
has become a more prominent starting page for the English version of
this
siteit
contains
actual additions and reports, especially those which concern recent
matchesAfrican
Nations Cup 2004:the
big the-shot.com coverage this time in the new tool:The-Shot.Net
writersclub !The
German version
has also the link to Bundesligaskandal,
which is updated weekly, but is a different format. But all new
articles
in German are rather to be found at that magazine now.most
actual top topics
or coverages in The Shot:

-The
BUNDESLIGA
FAQ magazine has a season review and illuminates the
background
aspects
of the excited German TV football rights market. It had been quite
appreciated
as there are not many English language magazines on German football.
Many
questions have come in but unfortunately the German FA has given no
response
to my request for help to answer them. So at the moment updates are
suspended.